SLCs during Virtual Learning

Every year at Da Vinci, Student-Led Conferences (SLCs) are held, but this year’s mid-October SLCs were very different in comparison to years before due to the Coronavirus. 

SLCs are the meetings or presentations, depending on the grade and teacher, where students present their academic progress to their parents, show them their grades, and provide students a place where they can talk with their teachers and parents about any questions or concerns they may have. 

An SLC is normally held in-person in one of the student’s grade level teacher’s classroom. Instead, this year SLCs were different due to the pandemic and took place on Zoom.

This year, DVC students, depending on their grade level, created a slideshow assigned by their Connections teacher, and then the students presented that to their parent(s) or guardian(s). The process was almost identical to other years but what changed was that teachers spoke with their parent(s) or guardian(s) and asked students questions related to the pandemic. For example, some questions asked were “Have you felt stressed?” and “Do you spend all day in front of your computer?” 

Another thing that changed in comparison to previous years was that when students finished introducing their parents or guardians, they only spoke to one of their teachers instead of usually speaking to more than one or all of their teachers. 

This year definitely was not what was expected from parents, students, teachers, and administration. Some parents were left with some doubts due to the fact they only spoke with one of their student’s teachers. Maria Cervantes, parent of a Junior at DVC, mentioned that she had recognized the difference in SLCs this year in comparison to years before and was one of the many parents who were more concerned during SLCs this year.

“This time I only had the opportunity to speak with a single teacher and I would have liked to have spoken with everyone because in past semesters, I spoke with the teacher of each subject of my daughter and they told me what attitude, collaboration, and responsibility were like,” said Cervantes. “They also told me if my daughter was very or not very sociable or if she was failing in their class.”

Eva Reyna, a Sophomore at DVC, gave her opinion on what she believes SLCs are for and what the purpose of SLCs is.

“I think it is to show your progress, to provide evidence of your knowledge of your domain (or lack of it), and to propose steps to improve going forward,” said Reyna. “The presentation is for you to think about as it unfolds, and your teachers should evaluate it once it is complete.”

This year will be a year that we will always remember as possibly one of the worst things that ever happened to the world, but better things will and have come. We cannot forget to smile and continue developing new skills during this pandemic.